McBeth v. State

Citations

• 50 Miss. 81

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminar Law — Indictment — Misnomer. — Where the person upon whom the felony is committed is misnamed in the indictment, and this should be shown in evidence on the trial, for such variance the defendant should be acquitted. 1 Amer. Crim. Law (Wharton), § 257. If the name in the indictment, however, be that by which the person is generly known, though different from the true name, the conviction will be good in a capital case. Meger v. The State, 43 Miss. Rep., 643.</p> <p>3. Same — Erroneous Instructions — Case in Judgment. — The court instructed the jury, that “ It is incumbent on the defendant to show clearly that the illtreatment to which the deceased was subjected was alone the cause of the death, and if the wound given was dangerous, then the defendant could not shelter himself under the plea of erroneous treatment; ” held, that this charge did not propound the law correctly, that it was too broad in affirming that the defendant must show that ill-treatment was alone the cause of the death, and that the last clause did not neutralize the error in the first, and in view of the testimony, may have misled the jury. Arch. Orim. Prac. & Plead., page 261 and notes.</p>